Please avoid making threats or wishing for violent crimes against any individual

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Should joking that someone you're debating should be eaten be a bannable offense?

...not if you refer to oral sex. Just don't be explicit.

Otherwise, suggesting that someone be cast to crocodiles, alligators, a reticulated python, Komodo dragons, bears, Big Cats, sharks, or a pack of starving dogs should be an offense suitable for banning.

OK, I would leave room for al-Baghdadi (leader of ISIS/Daesh) or Assad.

Summary extra-judicial execution is no answer for purveyors of evil like al_Baghdadi or Bin Laden. They should be put on trial, subject to the full weight of the law, and left in prison for the rest of their lives  and get to watch as a the world leaves them and their toxic ideologies on the garbage heap of history.

[ag]

Hey, I already have indigestion.

[elcorazon]

Seems with a crime family running the country this whole concept is passe, no?

[pbrower2a]

Should joking that someone you're debating should be eaten be a bannable offense?

...not if you refer to oral sex. Just don't be explicit.

Otherwise, suggesting that someone be cast to crocodiles, alligators, a reticulated python, Komodo dragons, bears, Big Cats, sharks, or a pack of starving dogs should be an offense suitable for banning.

OK, I would leave room for al-Baghdadi (leader of ISIS/Daesh) or Assad.

Summary extra-judicial execution is no answer for purveyors of evil like al_Baghdadi or Bin Laden. They should be put on trial, subject to the full weight of the law, and left in prison for the rest of their lives  and get to watch as a the world leaves them and their toxic ideologies on the garbage heap of history.

I assume that such horrible people would be subjected to the formalities of due process, including the right to a spirited defense. That's not to say that a fair trial would save someone like al-Baghdadi.

I once suggested that hanging was too gentle a punishment for Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Nazi war criminal (and traitor to Austria for his role in the Anschluss) who was the highest-ranking survivor to have responsibility for (and culpability in) the administration of the Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps. I suggested that burning at the stake would have been more appropriate in his case.

If you believe in Hell, then you likely believe that he is getting torture beyond human capacity for imagination -- at least if you know about him. Dante had his limits. 

[Badger]

Seems with a crime family running the country this whole concept is passe, no?

Late to the party here, but excellent point.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Seems with a crime family running the country this whole concept is passe, no?

Late to the party here, but excellent point.

It echoes a core problem of online discussion in the era of Dump's GOP: how can we possibly have a useful debate, when simply accurately quoting the President of the United States and leader of Republican Party is censored, or is a violation of site TOS? I do not blame various websites for the problem - I blame the Republicans who have collectively enabled a man grossly unsuited for the office he is purported to hold.

[alancia]

Seems with a crime family running the country this whole concept is passe, no?

No.

[pbrower2a]

Seems with a crime family running the country this whole concept is passe, no?

It is all the more important with the gang of questionable characters we have 'leading' our country.

Due process of law was adequate against the Nazis, the thug rulers of imperialist Japan, the leadership of the Hungarian Arrow Cross Party, the Khmer Rouge, and Satan Hussein's clique. Due process exposes the monstrous crimes and leaves little question of culpability of perpetrators.

Obviously we cannot compare Donald Trump to the likes of people who loosed half-starved dogs upon live prisoners, cast live children into the raging furnaces of crematoria, or ordered the use of Sarin gas upon helpless villagers. Summary execution or show trials leave too many questions unanswered. Even the Soviet Union set Anglo-American standards for trials of Nazi war criminals that they caught. We all have questions about most Soviet trials of political offenders, but not those Soviet trials of Nazi war criminals. If you are discussing Poland -- Poland quickly resurrected its old judiciary before the Commies fully consolidated power, and the old standards of Polish law were capable of damning the Nazis.

I'm not going to make any unfounded accusations of criminality by the Trump administration. It is best that the legal process do so should there be a solid foundation for such. 

[CrypticParrot]

Sad we need a giant thread saying to please have a basic level of civility but we do

[Beefalow and the Consumer]

Does that include Divine Retribution? There were some domestic terrorists busted for an anti-Muslim plot, and I suggested that it would be fitting if they found that Muhammad would be judging them.

     This is a point that we discussed. We agreed that wishing for acts of God to befall people we don't like is somewhat distasteful and should be kept to a minimum, but not actionable in the same sense that wishing for violence is.

(Gets out doll, pins, and lock of target's hair)

Challenge accepted.

[GeorgiaModerate]

Does that include Divine Retribution? There were some domestic terrorists busted for an anti-Muslim plot, and I suggested that it would be fitting if they found that Muhammad would be judging them.

     This is a point that we discussed. We agreed that wishing for acts of God to befall people we don't like is somewhat distasteful and should be kept to a minimum, but not actionable in the same sense that wishing for violence is.

(Gets out doll, pins, and lock of target's hair)

Challenge accepted.

OUCH!  Dammit, Beef, make sure you get the right doll.

[pbrower2a]

But it's ok to cheer to high heaven when someone dies......lol.

If it is someone incontrovertibly evil, like Charles Manson or Osama bin Laden... fine. With someone simply controversial such as Margaret Thatcher I have a problem. So it will be when the Grim Reaper takes Rush Limbaugh.

[morgankingsley]

We know that most posters are well aware of this forum policy, but a few have crossed the line on this matter, with regard to President Trump in particular. We understand that for many of you, the level of frustration, anxiety and even fear regarding Trump is high, but please respect this rule. Thank you.

The moderation team for the U.S. General Discussion board

I've always had this rule for general conversation thank you for bringing it up here

[lfromnj]

Do violent crimes include crimes against property of an individual or group?

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

But it's ok to cheer to high heaven when someone dies......lol.

If it is someone incontrovertibly evil, like Charles Manson or Osama bin Laden... fine. With someone simply controversial such as Margaret Thatcher I have a problem. So it will be when the Grim Reaper takes Rush Limbaugh.

Mmmh I don't think there is ever a way to decide who is "incontrovertibly evil" objectively. I mean, in theory we can all agree about Osama Bin Laden being more evil than Thatcher or Limbaugh and I certainly think so, but...
To this point, let me refer a story from an old article called "I Can Tolerate Anything Except The Outgroup" on the now closed blog SlateStarCodex (I'm recovering it from a podcast version):

The worst reaction I have ever gotten to a blog post was when I wrote about the death of Osama Bin Laden. I've written all sorts of stuff about race and gender and politics and whatever, but that was the worst.
I didn't come out and say I was happy he was dead, but some people interpreted it that way, and there followed a bunch of messages about how could I possibly be happy at the death of another human being, even if he was a bad person.
One commenter came out and said "I'm surprised by your reaction. As far as people I casually stalk on the Internet, you are the first out of the intelligent, reasoned and thoughtful group to be happy about this development and not to be, say, disgusted at the reactions of the other 90% or so". This commenter was right: out of the "intelligent, reasoned and thoughtful" people I knew, the overwhelming reaction was disgust that other people could be happy about his death.
I hastily backtracked and said I wasn't happy per se, just relieved that all of that was finally behind us.
And I genuinely believed that day that I found some unexpected good in people. That everyone I knew was so humane and compassionate that they could not rejoice the death even of someone who hated them and what they stood for.

Then, a few years later, Margaret Thatcher died, and on my Facebook wall, made of the same "intelligent, reasoned and thoughtful" people, the most common response was... to quote some portion of the song "Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead". From this exact group of people no expression of disgust or anything. I gently pointed this out and got a bunch of "so what?".
Then was when something clicked in my mind. [...] That when you're part of the Blue Tribe you're outgroup is not, say, Al-Qaeda, but the Red Tribe.

[pbrower2a]

But it's ok to cheer to high heaven when someone dies......lol.

If it is someone incontrovertibly evil, like Charles Manson or Osama bin Laden... fine. With someone simply controversial such as Margaret Thatcher I have a problem. So it will be when the Grim Reaper takes Rush Limbaugh.

Mmmh I don't think there is ever a way to decide who is "incontrovertibly evil" objectively. I mean, in theory we can all agree about Osama Bin Laden being more evil than Thatcher or Limbaugh and I certainly think so, but...

To this point, let me refer a story from an old article called "I Can Tolerate Anything Except The Outgroup" on the now closed blog SlateStarCodex (I'm recovering it from a podcast version):

The worst reaction I have ever gotten to a blog post was when I wrote about the death of Osama Bin Laden. I've written all sorts of stuff about race and gender and politics and whatever, but that was the worst.

I didn't come out and say I was happy he was dead, but some people interpreted it that way, and there followed a bunch of messages about how could I possibly be happy at the death of another human being, even if he was a bad person.

One commenter came out and said "I'm surprised by your reaction. As far as people I casually stalk on the Internet, you are the first out of the intelligent, reasoned and thoughtful group to be happy about this development and not to be, say, disgusted at the reactions of the other 90% or so". This commenter was right: out of the "intelligent, reasoned and thoughtful" people I knew, the overwhelming reaction was disgust that other people could be happy about his death.

I hastily backtracked and said I wasn't happy per se, just relieved that all of that was finally behind us.

And I genuinely believed that day that I found some unexpected good in people. That everyone I knew was so humane and compassionate that they could not rejoice the death even of someone who hated them and what they stood for.

Then, a few years later, Margaret Thatcher died, and on my Facebook wall, made of the same "intelligent, reasoned and thoughtful" people, the most common response was... to quote some portion of the song "Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead". From this exact group of people no expression of disgust or anything. I gently pointed this out and got a bunch of "so what?".
Then was when something clicked in my mind. [...] That when you're part of the Blue Tribe you're outgroup is not, say, Al-Qaeda, but the Red Tribe.

We all have our ideas of who is manifest evil. Eternal damnation is a severe consequence of some very bad misconduct. I could imagine that if Dante were writing his Inferno today he might have supplied a special bolgia for Nazis, the most egregious sinners of all times. I can imagine their souls being ripped by dogs... dogs might not be as efficient as lions, bears, or crocodiles, which makes a dog attack one of the most fearsome demises possible. Nazi guards at concentration camps came up with that horror.

I cheered the death of Osama bin Laden by singing the Battle Hymn of the Republic... and I contemplated what other powers would have done had it been their commandeered jetliners and their building. In such a case I would have cheered the People's Republic of China had it not done undue 'collateral damage'.

We all recognize some people as quite nasty. Some are simply offensive; some are incontrovertibly horrible. There's a huge difference between Margaret Thatcher and  Irma Grese (the latter a Nazi camp guard who had her dog attack and kill live inmates, for which she was duly hanged).

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

But it's ok to cheer to high heaven when someone dies......lol.

If it is someone incontrovertibly evil, like Charles Manson or Osama bin Laden... fine. With someone simply controversial such as Margaret Thatcher I have a problem. So it will be when the Grim Reaper takes Rush Limbaugh.

Mmmh I don't think there is ever a way to decide who is "incontrovertibly evil" objectively. I mean, in theory we can all agree about Osama Bin Laden being more evil than Thatcher or Limbaugh and I certainly think so, but...

To this point, let me refer a story from an old article called "I Can Tolerate Anything Except The Outgroup" on the now closed blog SlateStarCodex (I'm recovering it from a podcast version):

The worst reaction I have ever gotten to a blog post was when I wrote about the death of Osama Bin Laden. I've written all sorts of stuff about race and gender and politics and whatever, but that was the worst.

I didn't come out and say I was happy he was dead, but some people interpreted it that way, and there followed a bunch of messages about how could I possibly be happy at the death of another human being, even if he was a bad person.

One commenter came out and said "I'm surprised by your reaction. As far as people I casually stalk on the Internet, you are the first out of the intelligent, reasoned and thoughtful group to be happy about this development and not to be, say, disgusted at the reactions of the other 90% or so". This commenter was right: out of the "intelligent, reasoned and thoughtful" people I knew, the overwhelming reaction was disgust that other people could be happy about his death.

I hastily backtracked and said I wasn't happy per se, just relieved that all of that was finally behind us.

And I genuinely believed that day that I found some unexpected good in people. That everyone I knew was so humane and compassionate that they could not rejoice the death even of someone who hated them and what they stood for.

Then, a few years later, Margaret Thatcher died, and on my Facebook wall, made of the same "intelligent, reasoned and thoughtful" people, the most common response was... to quote some portion of the song "Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead". From this exact group of people no expression of disgust or anything. I gently pointed this out and got a bunch of "so what?".
Then was when something clicked in my mind. [...] That when you're part of the Blue Tribe you're outgroup is not, say, Al-Qaeda, but the Red Tribe.

We all have our ideas of who is manifest evil. Eternal damnation is a severe consequence of some very bad misconduct. I could imagine that if Dante were writing his Inferno today he might have supplied a special bolgia for Nazis, the most egregious sinners of all times. I can imagine their souls being ripped by dogs... dogs might not be as efficient as lions, bears, or crocodiles, which makes a dog attack one of the most fearsome demises possible. Nazi guards at concentration camps came up with that horror.

I cheered the death of Osama bin Laden by singing the Battle Hymn of the Republic... and I contemplated what other powers would have done had it been their commandeered jetliners and their building. In such a case I would have cheered the People's Republic of China had it not done undue 'collateral damage'.

We all recognize some people as quite nasty. Some are simply offensive; some are incontrovertibly horrible. There's a huge difference between Margaret Thatcher and  Irma Grese (the latter a Nazi camp guard who had her dog attack and kill live inmates, for which she was duly hanged).

I recognize the vast abyss between Margaret Thatcher and Nazis or Al-Qaeda, and hope everyone else does. At the same time, I am not in the business of cheering at anyone's death and in truth I kinda hope that Trump dies the oldest possible so that he will be a historical footnote by then and hopefully there won't be spontaneous parties in the street or other appalling things (although as my quote showed, this didn't work well for the Iron Lady).

[GP270watch]

 Pretty sad The President of The United Sates could not meet basic requirements for posting on this message-board.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Pretty sad The President of The United Sates could not meet basic requirements for posting on this message-board.

That's been true since even before he won. And it illustrates one of the ways in which he is so corrosive: his very existence is an unfit subject for civilized discussion. By becoming an unavoidable topic of discussion, he does vast amounts of damage to our society.

[pbrower2a]

Pretty sad The President of The United Sates could not meet basic requirements for posting on this message-board.

The same ethical standards as rightly apply to the rich and powerful as to the poor and helpless. I think of no major religion that suggests otherwise. Ideologies? Sure. Plutocratic ideologies assert that the rich and powerful have some inherent right to lord it over the rest of Humanity and can set harsh rules for the powerless and soft rules for themselves. Obviously prisons operate on that principle, but good reason exists for people to have a distinction between a normal life and imprisonment.

Potty-mouths are vile no matter how many assets the mouth has behind it.

Obviously I expect some occasional lapses, and we must excuse people with such conditions as Tourette's syndrome. This said, we have cause to not put vileness in the spotlight unless to use the light to disinfect it or to expose the vileness as a threat.

[Non Swing Voter]

Pretty sad The President of The United Sates could not meet basic requirements for posting on this message-board.

Prescient post.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Higher than Trump

Beyond that, it really depends whether Dems finally nuke the filibuster

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

They need to, voters got had when we Elected Sinema, we Elected her to pass legislation, not protect the Filibuster, she doesn't get that.

There is nothing in Constitution to protect the Filibuster, the Framers created Amendments to protect minority rights. The 13, 14 and 15 protect Civil Rights, if we undo the Filibuster, before recent times, it was worrisome that Rs would get rid of Civil Rights when they have control of Congress.

We have Civil Rights and there isn't any poll tax anymore

[Craziaskowboi]

Sad we need a giant thread saying to please have a basic level of civility but we do

On a related note, members of which political party dominate the discourse on this forum?

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

We've gone from the position where right-wings were doing this, to where Donald Trump was doing it, and now people like TX Rep. Roy are doing it:

'Get a tall oak tree': Rep. Chip Roy of Texas defends apparent pro-lynching remarks

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said he had "no apologies" after he made what appeared to be a pro-lynching remark during a congressional hearing on combatting anti-Asian American violence.

"The victims of race-based violence and their families deserve justice," Roy said in his opening statement at the House Judiciary subcommittee hearing, adding that he was concerned about the "thought police" stifling free speech.

"We believe in justice. There are old sayings in Texas about find all the rope in Texas and get a tall oak tree. We take justice very seriously. And we ought to do that. Round up the bad guys. That's what we believe," he said. "My concern about this hearing is that it seems to want to venture into the policing of rhetoric in a free society, free speech, and away from the rule of law and taking out bad guys."